Starting a company is like giving birth; running it is like raising a baby. It is all very easy to work as an employee and get paid at the end of the month; to have to start a company with all its uncertainties, risks, hard work and perseverance, is quite another. Most of us work for other people and companies, and this is especially so since the invention of the factory system. This has many advantages, although at the end of the day it might mean inflexible working hours, unsatisfactory compensation and perks, few vacations, low job satisfaction and simple drudgery. Such factors inspire some people to come up with ideas for start-ups.

A startup is any company or firm, or even an unincorporated agency that has come up recently. There are some distinguishing features of startups, although not all of them share all these features: usually the startup is a small to medium enterprise (for instance, a venture floated by an MNC won’t be called a startup); usually it is the idea of one or few people mostly having pre-association; startups are trendy – meaning they follow a trend, and when one sector is booming, many startups come in the same area (for example, the dot com boom inspired many startups); start ups may be funded by venture capital, angel investors etc. Humanity has progressed through working on rising ideas, and start ups are unique ventures that help in this process. Many an innovation is the result of the startups working as a vehicle to carry forward the idea. Successful startups yield much higher financial rewards to the promoters and even employees than established companies.

However, starting and running a startup is no easy task. Behind every successful startup are the ruins of many failed ones. Not all ideas are capable of being translated into a product or service, nor are start-ups the best vehicles for all ideas. Startups require intensive planning, massive information, and all those steps which went into the making of already established companies. There are employees to think of, service conditions and benefits to draft, etc. One needs payroll management, fund management, tax management, accounting and auditing, monitoring service and a lot of other office work that might make startup a bad idea for those who are not prepared.

Thankfully, there are many services, advisors and agencies providing all sorts of help, from tax consultancy, to venture capital management, to employee management. This section of the webdirectory is a pointer to such resources.